Tag: how to edit

Copy editing can take awhile. Unlike proofreading, which is more of a final polishing of your piece of content, copy editing is done early in the writing process and can lead to a complete overhaul or reorganization of your content.

There are a lot of things copy editors need to review, which means they will need to read through the copy several times before sending it back to the writer for revisions.

When you’re first starting out, you might find that you go back and forth between writing and copy editing multiple times. As you get better and more experienced, you’ll know what mistakes you frequently make, which you’ll start avoiding altogether.

Pro tip: Read through the entire piece of content once before you start making notes. This way, you’ll understand how the writer is framing the piece of content so you can make more informed decisions about organization and sentence structure.

Copy editor checklist

Check organization

Does each paragraph transition well into the next?

Are like ideas in the same section of the content?

Are headers and sub-headers descriptive?

Tighten up sentences

If you need to read a sentence twice to figure out what it’s saying, it needs to be revised

Break up long sentences into two or more sentences

Check for language consistency

Does the tone stay the same throughout the piece of content?

Does the writing switch between first, second and/or third person?

Check for clear language

Look for redundancy in sentences and paragraphs and get rid of the weakest one(s)

Check for unnecessary words that clutter the content and obscure the writer’s intent

Read out loud for clunky words, phrases and sentences

Run the paper through a grammar/spell checker, like Grammarly, for obvious grammar and spelling errors.